


Bump in the Night

by ilokheimsins



Category: Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)
Genre: Eggsy is a beastie, M/M, Supernatural Creatures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-27
Updated: 2016-01-27
Packaged: 2018-05-16 12:54:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5829700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilokheimsins/pseuds/ilokheimsins
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eggsy's a creature of the night and he's never felt bad about it until now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bump in the Night

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lionesspuma](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lionesspuma/gifts).



> My fill for Hartwin Secret Santa 2016 for lionesspuma!
> 
> They wanted something related to the supernatural (something to do with the call of Cthulu but when I googled it there were so many things I didn't know which one it was D:).
> 
> Eggsy isn't any real mythological/supernatural creature. He's more an amalgamation of a wendigo and a chupacabra with a diet of metals. I don't even know.

“Eggsy, what…”

It’s Harry’s horrified voice that forces Eggsy to turn around.  Like this, in this form, Harry is hyper detailed.  Eggsy can see Harry’s pulse rabbiting in his neck, the click of his Adam’s apple as he swallows, the twitch in his fingers as he subconsciously reaches for his gun.

Eggsy can’t talk like this and he’s never hated it, himself, before now.  All that comes out of his mouth when he tries is the sound of metal screeching against metal and Harry winces at it.  Eggsy pads forward on all fours delicately and Harry flinches when he’s just close enough to touch.

He knows it looks bad, it really does.  There’s metal chewed off the walls where he’d consumed it for power and there’s blood dripping from his maw because he still hasn’t worked out how to stop himself from gorging on the siren call of the iron in blood.  He knows his stomach is gaping because he’s an idiot and swallowed a live fuse for the taste of saltpeter.

He doesn’t know how to tell Harry that it will heal; he just needs to curl up somewhere and eat some more steel.

“Eggsy,” Harry looks incredibly distraught, his hands twitching forward like they might cup and pet Eggsy’s enormous, horned skull.

Eggsy rumbles, pleased at the thought, and Harry’s hands fall immediately at the sound of creaking iron.  And then, Harry Hart, the bravest and best fucking man Eggsy has ever known, does something Eggsy would have never dreamed of.

He runs.

***

By the time Eggsy has blinked himself out of his cognitive dissonance, healed himself, and loped out to where their escape vehicle is supposed to be, the Jeep is gone.  And Eggsy feels entirely justified in the primal scream therapy he engages in on the spot.  He’s never hated the way it sounds like a rusty buzz saw until this moment and when he catches his reflection in a nearby puddle of water, he snaps his face away in shame at the sight of rows on rows of teeth in his unnatural muzzle.

Michelle has always told him that the Unwins are beasts, monsters in the night, powerful ones too.  But Eggsy has always preferred the term creature.  For him, monsters are men like Dean who prey on the weak for fun or put the sour stink of fear into their loved ones.  Eggsy has never understood why his mum didn’t just shift and scare Dean away, turn into the form that’s three times his size and howl.

But Eggsy sort of gets it now.  Because his mum did love Dean once upon a time and you don’t want to ever do anything to hurt your love or make them afraid.

Harry is the bravest man Eggsy knows and Eggsy horrified him so much he had to run.

Eggsy has never felt like a monster until now.

***

Harry haphazardly parks the jeep and barges up the front of the mansion past Merlin, who looks entirely bewildered.  He storms past Roxy, who tries to ask him what’s wrong.  He nearly runs over Percival, who neatly slides out of his way.  Harry doesn’t slow down until he reaches his designated guest room in the mansion.  He shuts himself away with efficiency and turns all the lights on as bright as they’ll go – a childhood way of combatting nightmares – until it almost hurts to open his eyes.

“Harry, what the fuck is going on?” Merlin sounds rattled and Harry ignores him.  He slips his glasses off and tosses them somewhere – his feed being dark will at least let Merlin know he needs a bit to himself.  Harry reasons that he has approximately twenty four hours to figure himself out before Merlin takes a crowbar to his door, Roxy likely not far behind.

He shucks his suit in favor of an old RAMC shirt that’s so worn Harry hasn’t washed it in a good long while for fear it might just dissolve.  It gets paired with a pair of trackies so thin in the ass that you can see his pants.  But they’re exceedingly comfortable and that is what Harry needs now.

He crawls into his bed and curls up with all his blankets tucked about him like a cocoon, with a small window at one end for him to breathe out of.

And then he takes a deep, deep breath, releases it slowly, and lets himself think.

***

The mission starts out simple enough.  They’re down by the waterfront in a secluded factory surrounded on three sides by forest.  It’s a short mission, in and out to destroy the factory and everything it holds, including the people.

Eggsy is giggling quietly at the fact that Harry’s been forced to don one of Eggsy’s snapbacks in an attempt to tame his hair, which has decided to free itself from the hold of pomade and fly about in the wind.  They’re at the entrance to the factory and Eggsy keys in the code while Harry takes a preparatory stance, in case their intel is wrong and there are guards at this entrance.

No bullets come whizzing out so they creep down the corridor quietly.  It’s eerily silent all through the complex and the building sense of wrong that’s buzzing at the base of Harry’s skull grows as they get closer to the control center.

“We’re fine, Haz,” Eggsy reassures him and unbuttons his jacket to retrieve his lock pick kit.  He makes short work of the lock and he stands up to push open the doors.  There’s emptiness on the other side.  Eggsy waits a beat before he sidles in, gun loose in his left hand.  He does a slow circle and then grins out at Harry.

“See, nothing to worry ab—”

The laser burns diagonally down Eggsy’s chest and he howls.  Harry surges forward and drags Eggsy out of the way just as another bright burst nails the spot where Eggsy fell.  He gets them behind a large console and tears Eggsy’s suit apart to get at the wound.

“Don’, don’ worry,” Eggsy huffs and then spits out a gob of blood.

“Eggsy, you’re dying.”  Harry feels like he can’t breathe, like someone has his heart in a vice and is squeezing it tighter and tighter with every second Eggsy grows paler.

“’Arry, ‘m fine,” he coughs and his teeth are red, “jus’, jus’ gimme a piece of steel.”

“Eggsy, this isn’t the time for jokes,” Harry says desperately.

“’Arry, jus’ fuckin’ gimme it,” Eggsy orders weakly.  Harry does dutifully as he’s told – there’s a bit of pipe detached from the wall, a bit old and rusted but no thicker than a cardboard tube – and Eggsy shakily takes it.  He also reaches up a hand to fumble at the off button for Harry’s glasses.  The feed blinks out and Eggsy does the same for his own glasses.  He peeks up at Harry with a hint of trepidation and then opens his mouth and shoves the entire length of pipe in his mouth.

Harry is, understandably, alarmed and he reaches down to pry it out of Eggsy’s mouth when Eggsy shudders.  Silver flickers over his features and Harry scrambles backwards as Eggsy begins to twist and groan.  He rolls over onto his hands and knees and heaves for a bit, gagging in pain.  His suit begins to tear as Eggsy seems to expand and his hand shoots out to tear a panel from the console.  This, too, he consumes and he shivers again as he continues to grow.

There’s something freezing Harry in place, something that feels remarkably like horror and genuine fear – the likes of which he hasn’t felt in decades.  He’s also unable to tear his gaze away from the way Eggsy is twisting as his skin goes the color of brilliant chrome and curling horns sprout in a line down his skull.  His hair recedes away and as his clothes finally tear completely, unable to contain the size of the form within any longer, Harry can see Eggsy’s ribs pushing through.  His spine is also pulled up, each vertebrae visible as it marches down his back to the long, lashing whip like tail that flattens out oddly on the sides.

Eggsy throws his head back and makes a sound like rending metal before he stands up on his back legs.  On all fours, he was already large, but like this, the sheer size of him makes Harry want to run.  His horns scrape the ceiling and the shooter with the laser is frozen in fear as Eggsy regards him.  He tilts his head to the side and Harry has to repress the hysterical laugh that wants to burble out.

This…this fucking monster is standing in front of him and all he can think about is how Eggsy does the same fucking head tilt when he’s making a choice between cakes.  Eggsy whips a hand out and it goes straight through the glass to impale the man on the other side.  More men pour into the room only to stop in horror at the sight of the monster with a man impaled on one massive hand.

Eggsy shakes the dead man off and drops down onto all fours before screaming.  Harry clutches at his ears and grits his teeth against the noise.  It’s as if someone took the sound of nails on a chalkboard and amplified it hundreds of times over before finally deeming it good enough to come from the throat of a beast like this one.

Harry also finds out in the next moment why the tail is shaped the way it is.

Eggsy whips it around and it slices through flesh like a hot knife through butter.  Blood spatters the walls and the screaming as Eggsy lunges forward to bite and tear flesh apart has Harry squeezing his eyes shut.  He isn’t a stranger to death but he’s never seen it like this, never seen a hungry animal let loose on prey utterly unable to stop it.

He looks up just in time to see one of the men lob a grenade at Eggsy, who swallows it.  There’s a tense second where nothing happens and even Eggsy looks down at where Harry presumes the stomach is.

It goes off then, a loud bang that stripes blood across Harry’s face and he has a moment to think _Eggsy’s blood_ before something that Harry might very generously call a snarl if he were concussed and OD’ing on coke.  It makes the hair on his neck stand up and the little voice that’s been debating between fight or flight in his mind has suddenly jumped resolutely to flight.  Eggsy surges forward, his mouth gaping open, and Harry catches a glimpse of rows upon rows of large serrated teeth before Eggsy descends on the last man and bites him in half.

***

Eggsy has never been so fucking exhilarated before.  Sure, he’s run around in this form, but he’s never fought and it’s fucking brilliant.

He scores through men with his tail and claws and teeth.  They fall like dominoes and Eggsy can’t help but preen at the thought of Harry telling him good job, how efficient you are Eggsy.  There’s a scent Eggsy catches and he snaps up instinctively to swallow it.  Something about grenades just smells so damn delicious that Eggsy can’t help himself.  Even if it usually ends rather poorly.  He peers down at his stomach just as the thing explodes and he snarls before lunging forward to tear the last man standing in half.

His nose fills with the scent of blood and he licks at the floor.  It’s been ages since he’s had anything like this.  There’s something about blood that just makes the iron in it better.  His stomach is healing up slowly but it’s getting there and Eggsy can take his time shuffling around and hoovering up the blood saturating the floor.

It isn’t until he turns around and hears Harry speak that he remembers Harry.

…Shit.

***

Harry ran.  He admits that.  He definitely fucking ran because of the overwhelming fear.

He’s not proud that he did.  Of course not, he left Eggsy behind.

But _what the bloody fuck_.

He takes a deep breath and tries again by making a list of things he knows:

  * Eggsy is some sort of monster.
  * Eggsy eats metal.
  * Eggsy also eats live grenades.
  * Eggsy is apparently a fan of human blood as a food.
  * _Eggsy is some fucking sort of monster._



And then he feels absolutely pissed at himself for running away and leaving Eggsy there, because the boy obviously took a huge chance letting Harry see.  He could have just as easily knocked Harry out and finished everything while Harry was down for the count.

Eggsy trusted him enough to let him see and Harry feels absolutely horrible at the thought that he’s utterly betrayed that trust.

He is still trying to wrap his mind around the fact that Eggsy is apparently some sort of…thing from a nightmare but he’s still Eggsy.

Unless Eggsy has been replaced with a pod person.

Fucking Christ, Harry needs to stop letting Merlin choose the movies for their monthly movie nights.

He’s startled out of his thoughts by a loud banging on his door and Eggsy shouting, “You know what, fuck you, Harry Hart!”

Harry sheds his cocoon and goes to answer the door.  Eggsy looks royally pissed off when he opens it and Harry doesn’t begrudge him at all.

Whatever tirade Eggsy clearly has in mind stops in its tracks as Eggsy stares at Harry’s chest in surprise, like he didn’t entirely expect Harry to actually open the door.

“Hello, Eggsy,” Harry prompts.  “I’m incredibly sorry for my actions in the past two hours.”

That seems to snap Eggsy out of it because thunderclouds descend on his face again and he shoves Harry backwards into the room.  Harry lets him and he takes a few more steps back to give Eggsy space.  Eggsy slams the door shut and then jabs his finger right into Harry’s sternum.

“Fuck you,” He hisses.  “Y’know, I ain’t never felt like a monster before, aight?  Cause we was always in the dark, just bein’ the little flash in the corner of your eye and all we ever needed to eat was down by the fuckin’ abandoned train yard.  I never felt like a fuckin’ monster ‘til you wouldn’t even fuckin’ touch me and you smelled so fucking afraid and then you ran.”

He sucks in a deep shaky breath and swipes angrily at his eyes.  He can’t stop crying and Harry lifts a hand to wipe them away, which gets batted away by Eggsy.

Eggsy’s voice cracks heartbreakingly when he says, “Harry, you ran away from me.”

“Eggsy,” Harry says softly, gently like one might to a small frightened child, “may I?”

Eggsy makes a vague flapping gesture that Harry chooses to interpret as a green light.  He steps forward and slowly hugs Eggsy to his chest.  Eggsy’s arms immediately circle him as he attempts to burrow into Harry’s chest and they stand there until Eggsy’s shaking dissolves into the occasional twitch from a hiccup.

“I’m sorry,” Harry murmurs into Eggsy’s hair.  He genuinely is.  His actions, no matter how instinctual, hurt Eggsy and that is something he can’t abide.

Eggsy mumbles something and Harry pulls back to allow him room enough to speak.  He shrugs and sniffs loudly, eyes focused on Harry’s chin as he speaks.

“I said it weren’t all your fault,” Eggsy says, his cheeks flushing a bit as he does.  “I should have figured my goin’ all transformer on you prolly wasn’t the best way to tell you.”

“You were magnificent,” Harry tells him.  And he truly was, now that Harry thinks about it.  The efficiency of Eggsy’s other form – now that Harry has a moment to reflect – was breathtaking.

“You’re lyin’.”

“I was afraid,” Harry admits.  “Horrified and afraid and I still am.”

Eggsy stiffens at the admission and starts to pull away.

“But,” Harry continues, “it is a part of you and I told you once that I would always love you no matter what.”

“Betchu weren’t ‘spectin’ this,” Eggsy mutters.  He knuckles one hand against his nose, a defensive reaction more than any need to wipe anything away.

“No, Eggsy, I bloody was not,” Harry agrees lightly, just enough to get Eggsy to actually look up and see the small smile on Harry’s face, and that gets a weak chuckle out of Eggsy.

“But I love you still.” He pauses a moment and then diplomatically says, “Though your other form is entirely terrifying and I do hope you’ll forgive me if I have nightmares about it for the next few months.”

***

Eggsy doesn’t want to breathe because if he does this moment, this fucking moment where Harry is somehow okay with him being a creature of the night or whatever, might shatter.

Poof, gone, and Eggsy will be left trying to glue himself back together well enough to hide the hurt.

But here Harry is, and he stays there when Eggsy lets out a shaky exhale, and he’s alright with Eggsy being Eggsy.

“Yeah, alright,” Eggsy says and he doesn’t tell Harry how scared he was that Harry would never hug him again like this as Harry envelopes him back up.

He can feel Harry press a kiss to the crown of his head and he lets Harry shuffle them over to the bed, where he gathers them up in a cocoon of blankets.  Eggsy is suddenly fucking exhausted, his panic and his relief all mixing together at once.

“I do hope you’ll be breaking the news to Merlin and Roxy in a less…startling manner,” Harry says as he runs a hand soothingly up and down Eggsy’s back.

“Mmyeah, sure,” Eggsy agrees and then nuzzles into Harry’s neck to nap.

***

It’s not perfect.

They don’t ride off into the sunset for happily ever after.

Harry, true to his word, has nightmares and bolts out of bed, eyes wide in terror as he tries to regain his bearings.  He tells Eggsy about them afterwards because Eggsy’s a fucking masochist sometimes about shit like this and demands to hear it.  So Harry tells him about how he sometimes dreams that Eggsy looks at him and doesn’t remember it’s him and eats him.  Eggsy will tell him that that’s not how it works, that he and the beastie are the same entity and that sometimes he gets distracted but he’s still _Eggsy_.  And Harry will kiss him on the cheek or nose or forehead and tell him that he loves him.

It’s not the happily ever after a prince would expect, but in Eggsy’s books, it’s fucking perfect for a beast.


End file.
